Savvy scheduling:

One of the most anticipated days in the life of a college sports fan is the release of the upcoming men’s basketball schedule. Once revealed, brackets are made, teams are laid out and national rankings begin.

For Fairfield, it’s no different. With a tough non-conference schedule including Wake Forest and cross-town rival Sacred Heart, the schedule is demanding on all accounts.

While the schedule may simply dictate the teams the Stags will face, the leg work behind the unveiling can be one of the hardest jobs for any coach.

“Scheduling is a bear,” said Head Coach Ed Cooley. “It is one of the most important elements to coaching, behind only recruiting.”

According to Athletic Director Gene Doris, teams selected for the schedule are often based on the chances of Fairfield defeating them.

“People want to book wins when it comes down to it, and obviously their jobs are dependent on wins and losses in many cases,” he said.

However, a key factor in wining games is the ability to be able to play games at home. This year, the Stags will only play 14 of their 29 games at home, only two of those at Alumni Hall. Playing on the road is difficult for any team, but guaranteeing a home game usually means a contract to play away for two years.

Most of the lack of home games is due to upper level conference that will usually opt to only play at home, according to Doris.

“The upper level conferences usually don’t play on the road against mid-majors,” he said.

However, if these teams do play on the road, they often want a two-for-one or three-for-one return on the game. Fairfield would need to guarantee playing away twice in order to bring the opponent to Harbor Yard once. This can make scheduling extremely difficult.

Cooley said, “There are some games we are contractually bound to, others it is a commonality in schools.”

With certain contracts in place, the Stags have guaranteed, annual games with some teams. Currently, Fairfield and Holy Cross are in a six-year contract, while St. Francis and American both hold four-year contracts with the Stags. On the other hand, teams including St. Joseph’s and Fairfield share the Jesuit identity, which also aids in the scheduling process.

“We play Fairfield because of the Jesuit connections,” said St. Joseph’s Head Coach Phil Martelli.

Martelli also said having players and students from Connecticut, New York and Philadelphia add to the bonus of playing Fairfield.

However, with the increase in funding and profits that upper-level schools receive, the process of scheduling has only become increasingly difficult. With upper-level schools, such as Kansas, willing to pay $80,000 dollars to fly a team in for a home game, Doris said it has become more of a business than anything.

While Fairfield does not usually use compensation to get guarantees on home games, Doris said the Arena is an attraction in helping secure these games for the Stags.

“We have been pretty fortunate over the last few years in getting an attractive schedule,” he said. “The Arena does help us because if we were still playing in Alumni Hall there is no way St. Joe’s or Georgetown would play us.”

Much like last season, Fairfield’s schedule is going to be challenging both in- and out-of-conference. But while fans anticipate the start of a new season, the coaching staff is already hard at work on next year’s lineup.

Most of the planning begins a year in advance, but Martelli said certain factors lead to teams going beyond the year mark.

“We’re working now on [the] 2009-2010 schedule,” said Martelli.

Because of the construction of a new facility at St. Joseph’s, the scheduling must take place well in advance in order to secure rental space for later games.

“At a lot of schools they have an assistant coach that does the scheduling,” said Martelli. “But because it eventually comes back to the head coach, I usually do it myself.”

Doris said the scheduling at Fairfield is usually a collaboration between himself and the coaching staff, with Cooley having the most input in the schedule. Doris, like most athletic directors, gives the final review and is the last to OK the upcoming schedule.

Overall, teams are looking for a good balance in both home and away games, and more importantly, the wins.